Religion & Law

Columbia prof says Prop 8 adds to gay health woes

Posted on January 15, 2010
Washington Post: "A Columbia University social scientist says California's voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriages contributed to the social stigma that makes gay men and lesbians more susceptible to depression, suicide and substance abuse."

Muslim ?Leaders? Adding Fuel to the Swiss-Minaret-Ban Fire

Posted on January 15, 2010
"It?s hard to credibly demand religious liberty when one is in the minority if one refuses to grant it when one is the majority."

Church Which Helps Homeless Faces Eviction

Posted on January 15, 2010
Pacific Justice Institute: "Days after signing a contract for a third year at the cinema that it had been leasing, Loveland Church received a letter from its landlord that the agreement was terminated. Dated December 30th, the letter informed the Church that January 7th would be its last day...

Rocky Mountain Christian Church to receive $1.25 million in attorneys? fees

Posted on January 15, 2010
Becket Fund: " . . .  a federal judge ordered Boulder County to pay more than $1.25 million in attorneys? fees to Rocky Mountain Christian Church.  This was a follow up to the 2008 decision, in which a jury found that Boulder County violated RLUIPA when it denied the church permission to expand its facilities...

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Martha Coakley: Devout Catholics ?Probably Shouldn?t Work in the Emergency Room?

Posted on January 15, 2010
Democrat Martha Coakley was on with Ken Pittman from WBSM in Massachusetts today. Martha told Ken that if you object to abortion and are a devout Catholic then? ?You probably shouldn?t work in the emergency room.?

Law Review: The Rights of a Fetus under Section 1983

Posted on January 15, 2010
Unborn & Unprotected: The Rights Of The Fetus Under § 1983 Bram Alden, 57 UCLA L. Rev. 481 (2009) "Conceding that the language of Roe presents a virtually insurmountable obstacle to fetal 1983 actions, this Comment argues that neither the facts nor the reasoning of Roe logically support a regime that refuses to compensate unborn children for injuries occasioned by state actors...

Law Review: The Implications of 2008 Circuit Court Decisions for the Standard of Constitutional Review Applicable to the Military Homosexual Conduct Policy

Posted on January 15, 2010
Don't Ask, Do Tell: The Implications of 2008 Circuit Court Decisions for the Standard of Constitutional Review Applicable to the Military Homosexual Conduct Policy Major Bailey W. Brown, III, 201 Mil. L. Rev. 184 (2009) "This article argues that the Supreme Court will do as the Witt and Cook courts have done and subject DADT to a higher than rational basis standard of review...

Law Review: The Constitutional Status of Moral Legislation

Posted on January 15, 2010
The Constitutional Status of Moral Legislation John Lawrence Hill, 98 Ky. L.J. 1 (2010) "This Article argues that, in seeking to protect the private activities of gays and lesbians, liberals from Hart on have thought it necessary to throw the baby out with the bathwater by maintaining that the state may never regulate on the basis of 'private morals...

Law Review: Seeing It, Knowing It (Obscenity)

Posted on January 15, 2010
Seeing It, Knowing It Elizabeth M. Glazer, 104 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 217 (2009) "In When Obscenity Discriminates, I argued that the First Amendment?s obscenity doctrine has generated discriminatory collateral effects against gays and lesbians, and that those collateral effects generate a need to refine the obscenity doctrine in light of the Supreme Court?s decision in Lawrence v...

Supreme Court to hear Washington state R-71 signature disclosure case

Posted on January 15, 2010
The justices today said they will review a federal appeals court decision that authorized Washington state officials to reveal the identities of 138,000 signers of a petition to place an initiative on the ballot last year."

NM: ACLU urges supporters to contact legislators about domestic partner bill

Posted on January 15, 2010
The ACLU is encouraging its supporters to contact New Mexico legislators and urge support for the "Domestic Partnership Rights & Responsibilities Act, SB 0012."

NY: Paterson, lawmakers agree to more charter schools

Posted on January 15, 2010
9WYR.com: "Legislative leaders and Gov. David Paterson have agreed to raise the cap on charter schools as part of steps to meet a federal deadline for getting up to $700 million in additional aid to schools."

NY Times: Same-Sex Marriage Case, Day 5: Children

Posted on January 15, 2010
Gerry Shigh writes at the NY Times: "Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the lawsuit challenging California?s same-sex marriage ban, moved into one of the debate?s more contentious arenas Friday morning after the plaintiffs? lawyers introduced Michael Lamb, a developmental psychologist at the University of Cambridge, and addressed the issue of how children develop when raised in households with parents of the same gender...

Yale President defends censorship of Mohammed cartoons

Posted on January 15, 2010
FIRE: "In a letter to FIRE, Yale University President Richard C. Levin maintained Yale's position defending the censorship of images of Mohammed in a book about those images, citing a 'risk to life and safety.' However, President Levin also reaffirmed Yale's commitment to the strong protection of free speech in its classic Woodward Report, stating that 'it is not the role of the Dean or any other University official to suppress the speech of any student or student organization' and expressing 'regret' for Dean Mary Miller's role in the withdrawal of the Freshman Class Council's T-shirt design calling Harvard students 'sissies...

David French on efforts to air the Prop. 8 Trial on TV

Posted on January 15, 2010
David French, Director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, writing at Phi Beta Cons: "'Thrust themselves into the public eye?' 'Assumed a public face?' This is dangerous reasoning. Let's think for a moment about what actually happened here. The California Supreme Court thrust same-sex marriage onto the people of California in a sterling example of undemocratic judicial activism...

MA: Veil ban lifted after Islamic community protests at college

Posted on January 15, 2010
The Daily Free Press: "At the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, two Muslim women can once again choose to attend class wearing the niqab, a veil which covers the entire face except for the eyes, after the school lifted a hotly protested policy banning students from wearing the garment...

David French: ?The virus can?t be contained?

Posted on January 15, 2010
David French, Director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, writing at Phi Beta Cons: "It's amazing how many of the academy's bad ideas leak out out from campus and begin to infect the body politic. Two of academia's worst are the use of ideological litmus tests to determine whether a person can pursue their chosen profession and the explicit comparison of orthodox Judeo-Christian theology to violent white supremacy...

?Grad rates at D.C. charters decline?

Posted on January 15, 2010
Washington Post: "Charter officials said that 83.35 percent of its students graduated in the 2008-2009 school year compared to 88 percent the school year before."

Alaska: Signatures sufficient for abortion notification initiative, group says

Posted on January 15, 2010
"A group pushing for a ballot initiative that would create a law requiring parental notification for abortion says it has enough voter signatures and will hand-deliver its petitions today at the state Division of Elections."

Australia: New South Wales Government responds to report on same-sex adoption laws

Posted on January 15, 2010
Library of Congress: "On January 6, 2009, the government of New South Wales (NSW), Australia, released a letter in response to a parliamentary report that had recommended changing the law to allow same-sex couples to adopt children. In the letter, the Minister of Community Services, Linda Burney, indicated that, while the recommendation was 'not without merit,' the government will not be putting forward amendments to the law at this time...

Polish party eyes Catholic voters with charter plan

Posted on January 15, 2010
World Bulletin: "Poland's conservative opposition proposed handing sweeping powers to the president and outlawing abortion and gay marriage in a new constitution on Friday, positioning itself for elections this year and next. Law and Justice Party (PiS) leader and former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose twin brother Lech is head of state, said under the new charter the president could dissolve parliament more easily and have a say in judicial matters...

Book review: Madison?s Gift to America

Posted on January 15, 2010
Richard M. Reinsch reviews James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government, by Colleen A. Sheehan (Cambridge University Press, 204pp.) at City Journal: "In her excellent new study, Colleen A. Sheehan argues that James Madison is preeminent among the Founders in his insistence on the civic cultivation of public opinion...

International Journal for Religious Freedom

Posted on January 15, 2010
The International Institute for Religious Freedom as published the second 2009 volume of its International Journal for Religious Freedom online here.

Kansas judge in abortion case comes under scrutiny because he is Catholic

Posted on January 15, 2010
Boston Globe (AP): "The judge overseeing the trial of the man accused of gunning down a Kansas abortion doctor is a practicing Roman Catholic who once courted the endorsement of an anti-abortion group -- but who has insisted the case won't be about abortion...

?Can gays raise kids right? U.S. marriage trial asks?

Posted on January 15, 2010
Reuters: "'Children clearly benefit when they have two parents, both of them actively involved,' said Lamb. Asked if mothers and fathers interacted differently with children, he replied, 'It is now quite clear that those differences in and of themselves do not significantly affect children's adjustment,' he said...

Virginia: ?ACLU advises Stafford School Board on prayer?

Posted on January 15, 2010
Fredericksburg.com: "The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia today sent a letter to the Stafford County School Board regarding prayer at its meetings."

ADF update on Prop 8 trial: Day 4

Posted on January 15, 2010
ADF Attorney Dale Schowengerdt writing at The Christian Post: "Next on the stand was Dr. Meyer, who testified about how the marriage amendment stigmatizes people who engage in homosexual behavior. He spoke at length about how same-sex couples feel when they get funny looks from hotel clerks or passersby on the street, and how the negative attitudes about homosexual behavior impact their well-being...

Obama to Massachusetts on Sunday

Posted on January 15, 2010
The Hill: "President Obama will travel to Massachusetts on Sunday to campaign for Martha Coakley, according to sources."

The Best Thing About Orphanages

Posted on January 15, 2010
Richard B. McKenzie writes at the Wall Street Journal: "Critics of orphanages point out that children are always better off in loving and safe biological families. That's always been the case, of course, but many kids have no hope of access to such families...

Catholics and the law

Posted on January 15, 2010
Michael P. Foley writing at Inside Catholic: "Catholics in America have more reasons than ever to worry about the future of the law. The legal practice of the Catholic faith in the United States is already becoming difficult because of funding abortions via our taxes, scuttling our philanthropic organizations rather than supporting same-sex marriage, or paying for the artificial contraception of Catholic institutions' employees...

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